AI Discovered Antibiotics: How Small Data & Small GNNs Led to Big Results, w/ MIT Prof. Jim Collins
Jim Collins, Termeer Professor at MIT, unveils his AI-powered project that has discovered several new antibiotics, effective against resistant strains and often employing entirely new mechanisms of action. He details how their refined multi-step AI process, even with small datasets and modest compute, can efficiently screen vast chemical spaces to identify promising drug candidates. This breakthrough offers a realistic and affordable path to tackling the staggering antibiotic resistance crisis, which currently claims over a million lives annually. Collins argues this practical application of AI represents a transformative win for humanity, often overlooked amidst the focus on AGI.
Sponsors:
AssemblyAI:
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Claude:
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Linear:
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AGNTCY:
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Shopify:
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CHAPTERS:
(00:00) About the Episode
(04:30) Introducing Jim Collins
(05:26) Antibiotic Resistance Primer
(14:04) The Antibiotic Market Failure
(18:45) AI Discovers Halicin (Part 1)
(18:51) Sponsors: AssemblyAI Ad 1 | Claude
(22:11) AI Discovers Halicin (Part 2)
(30:58) The Economics of Discovery
(39:10) Inside the AI Architecture (Part 1)
(39:17) Sponsors: Linear | AGNTCY | Shopify
(43:47) Inside the AI Architecture (Part 2)
(01:00:13) Human-in-the-Loop Discovery
(01:12:12) Novel Mechanisms & Properties
(01:19:02) Future Applications & Risks
(01:27:01) A Call to Action
(01:28:04) Outro
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1:24:53
Education in the AI Age: a Teacher Rethinks Learning & Purpose, w/ Johan Falk of Graspable AI
Today Johan Falk, author, speaker, and AI analyst from Stockholm, Sweden, joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss his work reimagining education for the AI era, exploring why teaching students to use AI responsibly is now urgent, how traditional grades and standardized tests may become obsolete, and why education systems must develop unprecedented agility to prepare students for a radically uncertain future shaped by rapidly advancing AI capabilities.
Shownotes brought to you by Notion AI Meeting Notes - try one month for free at: https://notion.com/lp/nathan
Three Purposes of Education: Education serves to supply workforce competence, foster citizenship with values, and support personal growth.
Cultural Differences in Education: Sweden emphasizes community and common good over competition compared to the US approach.
AI's Educational Impact: The fundamental purpose of education is being questioned as AI develops, especially if Universal Basic Income becomes more prevalent.
Sponsors:
Google Gemini Notebook LM:
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Linear:
Linear is the system for modern product development. Nearly every AI company you've heard of is using Linear to build products. Get 6 months of Linear Business for free at: https://linear.app/tcr
AGNTCY:
AGNTCY is dropping code, specs, and services. Visit AGNTCY.org. Visit Outshift Internet of Agents
Claude:
Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow and thinks with you to tackle complex problems like coding and business strategy. Sign up and get 50% off your first 3 months of Claude Pro at https://claude.ai/tcr
Shopify:
Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive
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1:52:02
The Customer Service Revolution: Building Fin, with Eoghan McCabe & Fergal Reid of Intercom
Today Eoghan McCabe and Fergal Reid of Intercom join The Cognitive Revolution to discuss building their AI customer service agent Fin, exploring how they achieved a 65% resolution rate through rigorous optimization and custom model training rather than relying on base model improvements, while pioneering outcome-based pricing at $0.99 per resolution.
Shownotes brought to you by Notion AI Meeting Notes - try one month for free at: https://notion.com/lp/nathan
Sponsors:
Linear:
Linear is the system for modern product development. Nearly every AI company you've heard of is using Linear to build products. Get 6 months of Linear Business for free at: https://linear.app/tcr
AGNTCY:
AGNTCY is dropping code, specs, and services. Visit AGNTCY.org. Visit Outshift Internet of Agents
Claude:
Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow and thinks with you to tackle complex problems like coding and business strategy. Sign up and get 50% off your first 3 months of Claude Pro at https://claude.ai/tcr
Shopify:
Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive
PRODUCED BY:
https://aipodcast.ing
CHAPTERS:
(00:00) About the Episode
(03:43) Keeping Up With AI
(09:56) Evaluating Models and Evals
(13:04) Incumbents vs. Startups
(18:54) Product Risk and Judgment (Part 1)
(19:00) Sponsors: Linear | AGNTCY
(21:34) Product Risk and Judgment (Part 2)
(23:42) The Klarna Layoff Story (Part 1)
(32:11) Sponsors: Claude | Shopify
(36:13) The Klarna Layoff Story (Part 2)
(36:14) Driving Resolution Rate
(45:00) Intelligence Isn't the Bottleneck
(50:10) Closing the Automation Gap
(56:20) Human vs. AI Accuracy
(01:01:03) The Nuance of Speed
(01:04:48) Considering Paradigm Changes
(01:09:31) Outcome-Based Pricing Model
(01:19:12) Casual Hacking and Insights
(01:26:05) AI Adoption and Ambition
(01:36:00) Outro
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1:34:04
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1:34:04
Training an AI Scientist with Feedback from Reality, w- Liam Fedus & Ekin Dogus Cubuk (from a16z)
Today’s special crosspost features a16z General Partner Anjney Midha with Liam Fedus and Ekin Dogus Cubuk of Periodic Labs. They discuss experiments in training frontier AI models on real-world physics lab experiments—rather than digital reward functions—and how coupling language models with automated materials synthesis could accelerate the discovery of room-temperature superconductors and transform R&D in advanced manufacturing.
Shownotes brought to you by Notion AI Meeting Notes - try one month for free at: https://notion.com/lp/nathan
Core innovation: Periodic Labs is creating a "physically grounded reward function" by integrating experiments directly with AI systems.
Physical lab integration: Unlike traditional AI labs, Periodic includes actual physical experimentation facilities where AI can run tests in the real world.
Novel approach to training: Periodic takes pre-trained language models and further trains them on physics and chemistry knowledge to improve performance in scientific domains.
Read the full transcript here: https://storage.aipodcast.ing/cache/combinedtranscript-20251002T100327544Z.html
Sponsors:
Linear:
Linear is the system for modern product development. Nearly every AI company you've heard of is using Linear to build products. Get 6 months of Linear Business for free at: https://linear.app/tcr
AGNTCY:
AGNTCY is dropping code, specs, and services. Visit AGNTCY.org. Visit Outshift Internet of Agents
Claude:
Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow and thinks with you to tackle complex problems like coding and business strategy. Sign up and get 50% off your first 3 months of Claude Pro at https://claude.ai/tcr
Shopify:
Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive
PRODUCED BY:
https://aipodcast.ing
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1:00:33
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1:00:33
The Machines Are Taking Our Jobs - Thank God? Emad Mostaque’s Guide to the next 1000 Days
Today, Emad Mostaque, founder of Intelligent Internet, joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss his book "The Last Economy" and his radical "intelligence theory" framework for reimagining economics in the AI age, exploring concepts like the abundance trap, metabolic rift, and his proposed cryptocurrency-funded system of collectively-owned AI infrastructure to prevent digital feudalism and ensure AI benefits humanity rather than just capital owners.
Shownotes brought to you by Notion AI Meeting Notes - try one month for free at: https://notion.com/lp/nathan
Read the full transcript: https://storage.aipodcast.ing/transcripts/episode/tcr/936201c8-7b0b-4ec3-8f9d-057f08c32025/combined_transcript.html
Sponsors:
Fin:
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Linear:
Linear is the system for modern product development. Nearly every AI company you've heard of is using Linear to build products. Get 6 months of Linear Business for free at: https://linear.app/tcr
AGNTCY:
AGNTCY is dropping code, specs, and services. Visit AGNTCY.org. Visit Outshift Internet of Agents
Claude:
Claude is the AI collaborator that understands your entire workflow and thinks with you to tackle complex problems like coding and business strategy. Sign up and get 50% off your first 3 months of Claude Pro at https://claude.ai/tcr
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure:
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PRODUCED BY:
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Sobre "The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders, Researchers, and Live Player Analysis
A biweekly podcast where hosts Nathan Labenz and Erik Torenberg interview the builders on the edge of AI and explore the dramatic shift it will unlock in the coming years.
The Cognitive Revolution is part of the Turpentine podcast network. To learn more: turpentine.co
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